The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1887-08-18
THE LAWS OF HEREDITY.
STUDIES DRAWN FROM A coLLtc-
TION OF FAMILY RECORDS.
Little Difference Between tho Sexes in
tho Frequency OF Good aud Bad Tenl-
per-Temper "a Hereditary na Any
Other Quality.


per-Temper as Hereditary ns Any
Other Quality.
Mr.. Francis Galton, whose studies OF
the laws of heredity drawn from his 10
borious collection of family records must
be well remembered, has just printedin
The Fortnightly Review the results of his
investigation of the facts concerning what
is familiarly called "temper," and partic.
ularly the proportions of good and bad
tempered persons in English domestic life
and the heredity of temper" We can-
not follow all the variations Of Mr.. Gal
toms research, or reproduce his ingenious
calculations, but only note q few results.
Perhaps it may be thought surprising that
the proportion of good tempered and bad
tempered persons is almost exactly equal.
The first set of data which Mr.. Galton
tried gave the proportion of the good to
the bad tempered as 48 to %, the second
set MS Al to 53. There is little difference
between the two sexes in the frequency OF
good and bad temper, but that, little is in
favor Of the women, since about :45gmcn
arc recorded as good tempercdfor every %
who are bad, and conversely 55wonien us
good tempered for 45 who are.bnd.
Of 1865 children, 321 were good tenn
pered and 342 were bnd, with G05 wanting
special characteristics Of temper. The
good and the bad tempered were thus
edual again, the neutral orsnledium class
being as numerous as the other two COM
bined, results which Mr. Galton says bear
emphatic testimony to the correct judg-
ments of his compilers. AS to the au-
thority of these compilers or reporters,
and the capacity of any observers to deal
with the subject, he admits that "accu-
rate discernment and designation of char
acter is almost beyond the reach of any
one, but, on the other hand. rough
knowledge. and description of its pron,i-
nent features is easily practicablc;" and
he rightly thinks that there can be little
doubt of the value of Testimony of q
member of q family who has seen and OBJ
served person in his unguarded moments
and under very varied circumstances for
many years"
HERED1TY OF TEMPER.
.. Mr.. Galton is clear upon the important
question of the hcrcdity of temper; he
says it is s'as hereditary ms any other
quality:''
81 have forty-thrce cases where both
parents are recorded as good tempered
and twenty-five where they were both bad
tempered. Out of the children Of the
former 30 per cent were good tempered
and 10 per cent. bad; out of the latter 4
per cent. were good and SO per cent. bad
tempered. This is emphatic testimony to
the hcredity of temper
And he attempted, with still more sue
cess, to answer the converse question: Do
good tempered families of brothers and
sisters have, on the whole, good tempered
ancestors, and bad tempered families bad
tempered ones2 A good tempered family
he defines for the purpose as one in which
ut least two members were good tempered
and none were bad, and q bad tempered
family as onein which at 'lcast two; fnem.
bers werc bad tempered, whether or not
any cases of good temper were said to be
associated with them, and, as regards an-
uncles and aunts on both! side ms tile most
trustworthy group. On this Mr.. Galton
says:
I have forty-six good tempered families,
with an aggregate of 1888 parents, uncles
and atlnts; and seventy-one bad tempered
families, with G33 parents, 4uncles and
aunts. In the former group 2G per cent.
were good tempered and 10 bad; in the
latter group IS were good tempered and
20 were bad, the remainder being neutral.
More briefly we say that when the family
is good tempered as above defined the
number of good tempered parents, uncles
and aunts exceeds dhat of the bad tenn
pered in the proportion of three to two,
and that when the family is bad tempered
the proportions are exactly reversed. -
New York Post.